


No One Needs to Know

by Mogadorian_Wolf



Category: Darkest Powers - Kelley Armstrong
Genre: F/F, some weird time warp
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-11-24
Updated: 2015-11-24
Packaged: 2018-05-03 05:09:42
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,804
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5277869
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Mogadorian_Wolf/pseuds/Mogadorian_Wolf
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Annie’s feeling sick. She stumbles into a little necromancer who’s feeling scared. Neither wants the people they care about to know.</p>
            </blockquote>





	No One Needs to Know

Their mother was gone now. It was just Annie and her little brother, Rafe. And now, Annie was in charge; she was supposed to take care of Rafe and pay the rent and make sure they had to food to eat. She could see the worry and concern that gathered in little Rafe’s eyes, see the way he tried to help, to get them the money they needed to make rents and still be able to eat. He got in so much trouble just so she didn’t feel like she was doing this on her own, and she hated making him worry. It was the middle of the night when Annie came down with the flu or something just as bad.

Rafe was curled up on the other bed, fitfully sleeping. He didn’t sleep peacefully very often, but at least he hadn’t woken up from her coughing fit. He would of course. It was only a matter of time, and then he would be all over her, worried and protective. She had to slip out and let him sleep; she was supposed to take care of him. In the morning she’d slip back in and pretend like nothing happened, that she only got sick while going out to gaze at the stares. He wouldn’t buy it, but it was the best she could do.

She slowly eased up, stilling the rising cough. Her head was swimming, but she forced herself to cross the room, and stepped outside, barefoot. The cough finally erupted there, leaving her breathless. She leaned against their apartment when it was all finished, and started when her gaze lifted to the sky. It was impossibly dark outside, with no moon and heavy silhouettes of trees blocking out most of the pinpricks of starts. There should’ve been too much nearby light to even really see many stars, let alone for it to be this dark. Even as feverish as Annie was, she knew this had to be a dream or something, maybe a spell. She didn’t know much of how they worked, but it was possible.

Still, it seemed too strange to belong to anything other than a dream. She took a couple steps away from the wall she head leaned against, and really looked at it. It was a cabin, not the apartment she had been in moments prior. Alright, if it was a dream, she should be able to fly.

Nothing happened, and Annie hissed out a breath that was quickly followed by a sneeze. Not a dream, then. She turned back around, only to have a small body slam into hers. Annie fell to the ground with the small body on top of hers, unprepared for the impact. The other let out a high pitched yelp. It was a tiny little girl, shivering from the cold, Annie realized. She instinctively put her arms around the smaller girl to warm her up.

The small girl stiffened as if surprised by Annie’s reaction. She relaxed soon enough against Annie’s chest and stuttered out a breathless apology, “I-I-I’m s-sorry. Was-wasn’t w-w-watching w-w-w-were I was go-going.”

“Shh. Just calm down. It’s oka-“ Annie was interrupted by a violent coughing fit. If this was a dream, she really would’ve stopped being sick the moment she had stepped outside. The question was, why would anyone want to send her out into the middle of nowhere? The younger girl rolled off of Annie, seeming hesitant with her fingers hovering near Annie.

Annie regained her breath and reassuringly brushed her fingers against the other girl’s, “I’m fine. What were you running from?”

“I-I-I… there-there were… ghosts,” The smaller girl finally choked out, and Annie could hear the sob stifled in her throat. The poor girl- the necromancer was practically trembling from whatever she saw out there. She stiffened as if realizing what she had just admitted. To the wrong person, Annie supposed it could be a dangerous admission, but she just smiled at the young necromancer, “You don’t need to worry about me. I’m a shape shifter- a type you probably haven’t heard of. While I might not be able to see ghosts, I understand.”

The young necromancer let out a little laugh and relaxed closer to Annie, right as Annie sneezed again. Really, Annie’s chest was starting to hurt, and she groaned, letting her guard down for the first time in a couple of years. The smaller girl sat up and tugged Annie up with her, “You’re sick. You need to sit up. It’ll help. My aunt’s a doctor.”

Annie nodded and allowed the young necromancer to help her lean against one of the trees. She didn’t seem very interested in leaving Annie’s side, so Annie let her stay, “I came out here to keep it from my brother. We live in the city… I don’t know where I am now, or how I got here.”

The smaller girl shrugged as she leaned against Annie, “A forest somewhere? There should be a moon- at least there was one when I ran. It was cloudy, but you could see the moon, and I didn’t want to disturb… my companion. He needed the sleep.”

So they were both out here for the same reason. It made sense, in the weird way magic and dreams had. Annie nodded, exhausted and tilted her head back against the tree: “Then this can be our little secret, our sanctuary when we don’t want anyone to know. No one ever has to know about this place, if we actually have any control over it. My name’s Annie, by the way.”

“Chloe,” the younger girl replied easily, and Annie could’ve sworn there was a small smile on her lips. She waited after a brief cough from Annie to ask the unspoken question, “How long do you think we’ll be here?”

“As long as we need to be,” Annie replied, sounding more sure than she was. Chloe shifted to be closer to Annie, and Annie put her arms around the young necromancer who gave her a sheepish smile, “I’m sorry. It’s just that I you’re so warm.”

Annie smiled at the Chloe, “Don’t worry about it. I have a younger brother that can get clingy when he’s sick.” She paused, trying to gain the courage to ask, “Want to talk about it? What you saw, I mean.”

Chloe shook her head against Annie’s chest but, after a moment, started talking anyway, “It was this repeating murder scene. It just kept playing. A girl- about my age- was murdered not far from where we were… sleeping.” Her whole body shuddered at that, but before Annie could provide any comfort to the young necromancer, she sneezed. Chloe didn’t move away, and Annie weakly protested, “I’m going to get you sick.”

“This might not even be real,” Chloe whispered with, Annie suspected, a smile, but she had t admit that the young necromancer had a point. While, she had pretty much ruled out a dream, it was still in the realm of possibility or something else that was equally noncorperal.

Annie smiled; this younger necromancer had spirit to her. They curled around each other, and while Annie’s chest still hurt, she felt happy here, free from the pressures and burdens back home. For the moment, she didn’t even feel guilty about being so far away from Rafe. She wondered what was so different about this place that it set her very soul free, but she drifted off before really deciding to delve into the mystery.

Hours later, their little sanctuary lightened, and they both yawned, stirring from their sleep. Annie blinked at the colors invading their sanctuary’s sky with no clear source. What was this place? Beside her, Chloe sat up, disentangling herself. For the first time, Annie could actually see what the young necromancer looked like. Chloe looked young with black hair that clashed with her pale complexion and was doubtlessly dyed, and when Chloe looked over at Annie with a shy smile, Annie could see blue eyes that shone with wonder that she could just drown in. Chloe was really pretty for her age… whatever that was.

“You sound better,” Chloe commented, and Annie nodded, not sure if she could remember how to speak, those blue eyes had just struck her. The young necromancer smiled as if she sensed this, “You’re not coughing or sneezing anymore. You sound better. Maybe this place has some kind of magic for that.”

She looked back at the spreading colors in the sky, and Annie felt the urge to make some sarcastic reply, “Or it could be that the dream power of choosing our own reality finally kicked in. You’d think it would’ve happened a while ago.”

Chloe laughed, “Could be. But then why would we be in each other’s dream?”

Those inquiring blue eyes were killing Annie. She swallowed and looked at the sky, “That’s why I’m not sure it’s a dream. I’m not sure at all what this place is. There’s no sun or moon, but it shows the affects as if there were. If we go back the way we came, I bet we’d wind up where we were. And maybe if we ever need to slip away again, this place will appear to us, like our sanctuary that nobody ever needs to know about.”

They both got to their feet and faced each other. Annie gently touched the young necromancer’s shoulder, “Chloe? If you ever need to talk or something that you don’t want anyone else to know, I’ll be waiting here in the sunless place.”

Chloe smiled and the whole world seemed to lighten up because of it, “I know. The same goes for you Annie. I can’t heal a cold or anything, but I can make an effort to learn more from my aunt about it. No one ever has to know about this place.”

Annie laughed, “Unless this place decides to open itself up to others.”

Chloe laughed, too. “Yeah, unless it decides to do that. Well… I should go.”

“Me too,” Annie whispered, and it was like pulling two magnets apart when they turned away from each other. Still, as Annie walked toward the little cabin that didn’t in any way resembled her apartment, her soul felt lighter. Her chest didn’t hurt anymore; she didn’t feel sick and the image of a young necromancer with died black hair and blue eyes was stuck in her head. She opened the door and found herself back in their apartment with the sun rising.

Rafe was still in his bed, and when he raised his head to look at her, Annie could tell he wasn’t feeling all that good. Looks like she did get someone sick after all. He stared at her for a moment, before groggily asking, “Where were you?”

“Out,” She replied, simply.


End file.
